


A Morning With Talcott

by TimidMarshmallow



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Hanging out at Caem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-14 14:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18950374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimidMarshmallow/pseuds/TimidMarshmallow
Summary: Some of Prompto’s photos show him hanging out with the little boy staying in Caem. Surely these moments are special?





	A Morning With Talcott

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a cute photo of them on tumblr and this happened.

“Look, Prince Noctis! Grandpa’s notebook has drawings of some of the Royal Arms. Were any of these the ones you collected? Oh! If not, then maybe this could help you!” Talcott held up the book eagerly, shoving it in front of the visiting men. “And check it out, I polished that cactuar model you gave me so now it is super shiny!”

“Wow, Talcott. That’s… great.” Noctis yawned. He liked Talcott, he did, but he was too exhausted to deal with the child’s exuberance right now. He had barely managed to stay awake through dinner. “We’re going to head up to the room now, okay? Can you let Monica know we’re going to bed?”

“Okay, I will go tell her.” Talcott deflated a little, he wouldn’t be able to hear any cool stories about their travels through Lucis right now. Prompto felt a twinge of guilt at his sudden demeanor change, and patted the kid’s shoulder. He was just as tired as everyone else, but he wasn’t about to let Talcott feel like he was being rejected or pushed aside. “Hey, do you want to learn more camera tricks? I’ll show you the new filter we picked up!”

“That sounds fun, but you can show me in the morning. I’ll bet you’re tired.” Talcott smiled up at the men. They did look worn down, but maybe they would feel better after a good night’s rest. Ooh, maybe he could get Iris to help him make them a special breakfast tomorrow! They’d like that! He ran off to suggest the idea with a hasty ‘good night!’.

Ignis hummed, obviously considering something. “He’s grown a bit since the last visit.”

“Yeah, maybe a couple inches. Soon he’ll be taller than you, Blondie.” Gladio grinned smugly at Prompto’s indignance before opening the door to the room they usually stayed in during their Caem visits. 

“Sorry we can’t all be as tall as you, big guy. You know, I feel bad just dropping in to sleep, eat, and then leave right away again.” He may have felt guilt, but that didn’t stop him from appreciating the soft beds. Prompto wasted no time and dove onto the nearest one. Noctis flopped down in a similar fashion. “We help with those disgusting carrots for that Tony guy.”

“That’s hardly a help, considering that Monica and Dustin have fixed this house up while caring for two minors. I also feel a bit guilty in that regard, but we have other obligations. We can’t stay for too long, lest the empire catch wind of our hideaway.”

“That would put everyone in danger.” Prompto supposed that was worse than not helping more. Any further discussion about the group’s level of assistance was put off. Right now, they all cared about one thing: sleep.

-o-

Prompto was the third to rise. 

Usually, he was the second, but Gladio woke up early today to spend more time with his sister. Ignis had already started on his first Ebony of the day as he chatted with Dustin about the local wildlife. He had been curious about the behemoth king they sometimes encountered where the karlabos lived. Dustin reassured him that neither creature ever approached the house, instead choosing to prey on the shieldshears and sahagins that lived close by. “You can hear the beast roaring from up here, though. Gave us quite the fright the first time the behemoth came here.”

Iris put a plate with a moogle head pancake down in front of the groggy blond. The fruit eyes stared up at him, and he thanked her. “Mm, thanks. This is cute.” Prompto wasted no time in slicing the moogle into bite-sized pieces. He liked how she’d always try to make character food. Prompto loved Ignis’ cooking and how fancy it always looked, but there was something personal about Iris’ shaped delicacies. Of course, he couldn’t admit that to Ignis. As it was he became a tad jealous when Prompto had voiced excitement about the girl’s cooking. It was different, and he appreciated both chefs equally.

Talcott also put a mug of hot chocolate in front of the gunner. “Is Prince Noctis up yet? I wanted to show him Grandpa’s journal.”

“No, he’s still snoozing. Mm, this tastes good! Did you make this, Talcott?” Prompto took another sip, savoring the flavor. The boy shook his head. “No, Aunt Monica put the flavor packet into the hot milk. I added the marshmallow, though!” 

As the morning progressed Talcott became antsier. He really wanted to show Noctis those Royal Arms. His family served the Amicitia household, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help his king! Talcott felt he owed the man, he and his friends had gone to one of those horrible imperial bases to make them pay for what they did. Or was Noctis still technically a prince? He wasn’t coronated, but King Regis was dead… Did the title automatically fall to his son? He wished Grandpa was here, he would know which royal title to call Noctis. “I’m going to go outside.”

Only Prompto heard him. Iris was still cooking, Monica had already gone out to the vegetable garden, Dustin and Ignis were still talking, and Gladio was in the process of getting another pancake. Putting his dishes in the sink, Prompto went to check on Noctis before following Talcott. He quietly opened the upstairs door. “Noct? Are you okay?” 

“Ngh… Prompto? Ugh…”

“Noct, what’s wrong?” He closed the door behind him and zoomed over to see if his best friend was okay. Moving aside the dark bangs, Prompto put his hand on Noctis’ forehead. “You don’t feel feverish. Should I get Iggy? He’ll know what to do.” He began absentmindedly rubbing his hand through his friend’s hair. The motion was soothing, and Noctis let out a pleased hum. 

“No, I’m not sick. I just feel exhausted.” Noctis supposed it was due to all the magic he had used yesterday. That, combined with how little they had been sleeping lately… all of it had finally caught up to him. “I’m hungry but I don’t want to move.”

“Iris is making pancakes. Do you want one? I’ll bring it up here.” Prompto sighed. Noct had a lot on his plate, and he wanted to help the older man any way he could. “I’ll just tell everyone that you need some more rest.”

Noctis rolled over. “Thanks, Prompto.”

“Glad to be of service.”

-o-

He hadn’t been able to stop Ignis from going in after telling him that Noct needed to sleep more. The advisor took the food in as well. “Prompto, I’ve looked after him almost all his life. I know what to do.” There was no arguing when the man had a plan, so the blond went off to find Talcott.

The little boy was throwing rocks near the house. “Talcott! Do you want to see those filters now?” Prompto held up his camera. 

“Okay.”

“Whoa, what’s wrong? You seem down in the dumps.” Prompto’s brow furrowed. He recognized that sullen look, he had sported it himself when he was younger. Talcott huffed and sat down on the rocky earth. “I want to help more, but everyone keeps saying I’m too young. I can’t even go in and see Prince Noctis because I might bother him. Well, they didn’t say it like that but that’s what they meant.” That seemed to be the tip of the iceberg that was on his mind. He kept talking before Prompto could encourage him to share. “You know, Aunt Monica is teaching me how to fight like a Crownsguard, but it’s still all the basic stuff. How am I supposed to get better and stronger to help more when nobody thinks I can?”

Prompto sat next to him. “Talcott… It’s not that nobody believes in you. They all just want to keep you safe.”

“I know, but I’m not a tiny kid anymore.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Prompto leaned forward as he whispered. The sudden drop in volume piqued the boy’s curiosity. “When I was your age, I couldn’t fight at all. I didn’t start learning how to use my gun until I joined the Crownsguard, and even then there were so many rules. Cor was very strict. But you know what?”

He waited for Talcott to ask. “What?”

“Now I’m a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself. Look.” Prompto summoned his gun and pointed to one of the trees a short distance away. “I’m going to shoot that branch off of the tree.”

“No way, that’s too hard!” Talcott had never seen Prompto in action, (darts kind of didn’t count), so he was understandably skeptical. The gunner proved him wrong, though, and the branch that received the bullet came tumbling down from the tree. The gun went back into the armiger as Talcott jumped up to go get the felled branch. He ran back, brandishing it like a sword. “WOW! How’d you get that good?”

“Training, just like you’re doing now. And I started with all the basic stuff, the kind you are learning with Monica.” Prompto smiled at the potential future Crownsguard. Talcott stopped swinging the wooden weapon to look at the older male. “Thank you.”

“Hey, I want to go check on Noct. You wanted to talk to him, right?” Prompto knew that Talcott probably started feeling bummed because everyone told him to give Noctis space. 

“Maybe later. He was still in the room when I came out, so he’s still in bed. Right?” Talcott shrugged. “Besides, you said you were gonna show me some filters.”

Prompto blinked owlishly. Talcott was choosing to hang out with him instead of Noctis? 

“After this can you show me how to aim?” The kid plopped down next to his new playmate, unaware or uncaring that the man was still puzzling out the fact that someone picked him over Noct. Prompto himself would have chosen Noct, but that was a given. “I can’t let you use the gun. If you got hurt I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. We can throw stuff to practice instead, are you cool with that?” 

“Aunt Monica doesn’t let me use real weapons either. But, can I tell you a secret? Like how you told me one?” Talcott stood up again. He grabbed the left leg of his pants and lifted the fabric. Doing so revealed a fading scar, and Prompto winced. “What happened? That looks like it was painful, dude.” 

“Promise you won’t tell.” Talcott seemed to have second doubts, remembering that Prompto was an adult. It was different telling a kid a secret, or even a teen, but when an adult learned of a secret they always made up new rules. The twenty year old put a finger over his lips. “I promise.” 

“Okay, phew. I took one of the kitchen knives to use as a sword, to practice, and I dropped it and it cut me but I told everyone I fell on a rock.” Talcott steadily lowered his voice as he hastily spat out the tale. “I hid the knife behind the lighthouse so no one would see that I got blood all over it because I couldn’t take it inside to wash it.” 

Prompto whistled. “Um, maybe don’t do that again.”

“I won’t. I felt awful lying, but Aunt Monica would have been so mad, right?” Talcott fixed the pants so that proof of his misdeed would be hidden. Prompto nodded. “I made a lot of mistakes while training too.” 

“Did you ever lie?” 

“...Uhhh, let’s not talk about that.” Omitting important facts was still lying, technically. Prompto didn’t want to admit that right now. He stood up and held his hand out. “Can I have that branch?” Upon receiving the felled tree limb he drew a circle in the dirt. “We need some rocks to throw.” 

“I know the best spot to get rocks! Come on!” Talcott zipped off, and Prompto dropped the stick to follow. “Haha, wait up!” 

The little boy led him to a spot in the grass not far from the house. “Look, you have to dig a little, but it’s here under all the grass.” 

The man knelt down next to Talcott. Holding out his hands, he accepted the rocks that his companion deemed adequate for their task. As the earth was shifted the denizens were revealed. “Hey, look at that worm. It looks just like the ones Noct puts on the lures. I still don’t get how he likes touching the slimy, wiggling…” Prompto trailed off, disgust for the bugs evident. His best friend agreed with him that bugs were icky, but the prince didn’t mind handling worms and fish.

Neither did Talcott, apparently. He picked it up and moved it out of his way. “How many rocks do we need, Prompto?”

“Uhhh…Fifteen? Maybe?” 

“Yeah, that’s a good number.” Talcott finished grabbing the rocks. “Now what?”

“Now we can practice our aim. Let’s go back to the dirt circle, that will be our target.” Prompto had to jog to keep up with Talcott as they ran back to the training zone. “Hey, don’t stand that close. That’s cheating, dude!”

Talcott hopped back twice. “From here?”

“Hmmmmm…” Prompto made a big show of deciding whether it was too close or not. “Take one step back, no move up a little, back, more, more-”

“Hey, you’re just messing with me!” Talcott laughed and picked his own spot. They started throwing the rocks, trying to get them in the center of the crudely drawn shape. 

“Prompto?”

“Hmm?”

“What is it like? Driving everywhere with your best friends? Do you ever… do you ever get homesick?” Talcott chucked a rock with some force. Prompto shrugged his shoulders. “There are little things I miss from Insomnia, but it’s not so bad travelling.” 

He paused, wondering if he should admit this to one so young before deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to speak the truth. “I’d go anywhere Noct and the guys want. I… I’m scared of losing them because they’ve become ‘home’. So I guess I’m not as homesick as I probably should be? Ah, don’t mind me, I’m probably not making sense.”

“No, I get it! Grandpa was home, for me. Now, I guess it is Iris and Aunt Monica and Uncle Dustin. I don’t want to lose them.” Talcott regarded Prompto for a moment, and the adult wondered what the child was searching for in his eyes. “You are a good friend, Prompto.”

“I’m nothing special, really. I just… I owe them so much and I have to pay them back any way I can.” 

“Why don’t you let me compliment you? You do that a lot. I’ve noticed it, people don’t think I notice things but I do.” Talcott was saying this so matter-of-factly, as if he had been doubted too many times and was tired of it. He stopped throwing rocks to put his hands on his hips.

Prompto didn’t know what to say. “What? No, that’s not true! I let people compliment me, the guys always say nice things after I do something in battle!” He’d giggle or brush it off with a casual ‘it’s nothing’ but he let people say nice things to him. Talcott wasn’t convinced. “Yeah, but then you say things like you’re a pleb or you emphasize that Prince Noctis is royalty. You do it over little things, I heard you say that when you were talking about Ignis’ cooking.”

He had to admit that maybe Talcott had a point. Prompto had just said that to Noctis recently, though he hadn’t realized other people had been listening. Why didn’t he let people compliment him? It wasn’t like they were lying, it was Noctis, Ignis, and Gladio! They were too close to him to be patronizing, surely? Prompto didn’t know what to tell Talcott. “I don’t know, I didn’t realize I was doing it.”

“Well, let people be nice to you. You’re nice to them and to me, so I want you to feel the love too.” Talcott dropped the rocks to hug Prompto. 

“You’re a good friend too, Talcott.” Prompto hugged him back.

“What do you want to play next?” Talcott let go. “I know! We can go up to the top of the lighthouse and drop rocks from up there! I like to time them and see how long different sizes take to make it down.”

He ran off, and Prompto followed his young friend.

-o-

The two returned to the house for lunch. Prompto plopped down at the table, worn out. “Ignis, is Noct feeling better?”

“He is still upstairs, but I believe he is in the shower.” Ignis was busy at the counter, and Talcott paid his work no mind. “Thanks! I’ll go get the journal I told you about, Prompto!”

After the child zipped off Ignis leaned forward. “Are you all right, Prompto? You look as if you’d been fighting a behemoth.” He would know what that looked like, they had just done it last week. “I’m okay, just pooped from playing all day. It’s, like, a good kind of tired.”

“Hmm. Glad to hear it.”

Monica, who had been in the kitchen as well, waited until Ignis was done. She had been a little further in the nook they used for food preparation. “Thank you for watching him today. I can tell he really enjoyed himself.”

Prompto smiled. “I had fun too.” 

Talcott pranced back into the kitchen, Noct wearily marching behind him. Prompto perked back up. “Hey, you got him up! How ya feelin’, Noct?”

“Sore. Talcott says you guys played ‘One Thousand Needles’?” Noctis oozed onto a chair at the table. The boy in question posed and nodded, ready to perform his favorite creature’s attack. “Like this, Prompto, remember?”

“Yeah!” Prompto held up his hands and jabbed the air. “Come on, Noct, try it with us!”

“Okay, okay, haha…” Noctis smiled. He was glad Prompto worked his magic on Talcott. The man thought he wasn’t good with people, but he didn’t realize how easily he touched hearts. Three voices joined to announce their combat move, and then Ignis set up lunch for the hungry cactuars.


End file.
